To create my digital citizenship poster, I first needed to find out what issues are most pressing for my students. In the classroom, we don’t use the Internet much except when they view videos I have linked in their One Note notebooks, or they play games to which I have provided the links. We are about to embark on a research project, so I wanted to make sure that my students understand how to properly and respectfully cite sources. However, the issue that seemed more pressing was the fact that the majority of my students spend hours at a time on the evenings and weekends exploring videos on YouTube. Whether they are being supervised or not, have a private username, or make good, ethical choices while perusing this website varies with each student. Therefore, I wanted to make sure my students are being good digital citizens while searching for and viewing videos, as well as if they are posting their own videos under their own username.

I wanted to make sure my poster was something that would catch their eye, and be relatable for the third-graders. Therefore, I took photos of them on YouTube to include on the poster, hoping they would enjoy seeing themselves, then stop and read the poster. Next, I thought about the digital citizenship elements that are most concerning when children are using social media (YouTube). After doing a lot of research, I came across an article on Edutopia by Vicki Davis, who briefly summarizes the “9 Key Ps” that she teaches her students. Since I did not feel that all 9 “Ps” were relevant to my students while they use YouTube, I included only a few of the important ones on my poster. The ones I felt were important in one way or another were: Password, Privacy, Personal Information, Photographs, Property, Protection, and Professionalism. I did not label them, rather, I wrote them in dialogue bubbles and in first person to go along with the photographs I took of my students so that it would be reader-friendly. Lastly, included one photograph of a student on Google, since I wanted to be sure I included citing sources as an important aspect of being a digital citizen. I also included this because I know students use search sites at home to find photographs that are either posted onto social media sites or shared with friends. I plan to display my poster on the classroom charging doc for my students’ laptops, and plan to partner with the school’s technology teacher to help emphasize these important reminders. You can view my Glog here.